Welcome to Eureka Street
Looking for thought provoking articles?Subscribe to Eureka Street and join the conversation.
Passwords must be at least 8 characters, contain upper and lower case letters, and a numeric value.
Eureka Street uses the Stripe payment gateway to process payments. The terms and conditions upon which Stripe processes payments and their privacy policy are available here.
Please note: The 40-day free-trial subscription is a limited time offer and expires 31/3/24. Subscribers will have 40 days of free access to Eureka Street content from the date they subscribe. You can cancel your subscription within that 40-day period without charge. After the 40-day free trial subscription period is over, you will be debited the $90 annual subscription amount. Our terms and conditions of membership still apply.
When Joe Hockey said on Q&A that the 'very best circumstances' for a child entailed having 'a mother and a father', Penny Wong, who has a child with her partner Sophie Allouache, replied 'I know what my family is worth.' It was a galvanising moment in the same sex marriage debate, which is not going away.
The Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoption has revealed heinous practices. The father of my children was adopted at birth, and as a psychologist I now counsel many who have been part of the adoption triangle. The role of fathers in cases of forced adoption is often overlooked.
'Did I have a brother once?' asks a little boy, no longer sure. His mother's eyes fill with tears. 'Yes, darling. A long time ago, you had a baby brother of your own.' He shouts triumphantly, 'I did have a brother!' and runs off. We mothers glance at each other, then look away. There are no words.
Sociologist Eva Cox heard all the vitriol about boat people when, as a five-year-old Jewish girl, she fled Nazi Germany and headed to Australia. My nine-year-old mother was a different kind of boat arrival: one of 135,000 'child migrants' imported under the 'Populate or Perish' policy.
Sydney mother Grace Wang was left paralysed from the waist down due to a botched epidural. When I first heard her story I recalled my own epidural experience with my firstborn, looking fixedly down at the floor trying to ignore the blood pooling around my feet. Childbirth can be a murderous business.
His mother quoted Shakespeare, preferred her husband to their children, placing her faith in him, gin, and ghosts ... When she turned up breast cancer's card she hugged her suffering to herself.
What's more unfeasible? The dim prospect of churches selling off real estate to house and feed and clothe the homeless, or elephants, webskidding with zeal?
When we search in distant places for fulfillment and purpose, we can miss the value of the local experience. I recently spent time in Nganmarriyanga, a remote Indigenous community, where I was greeted by a child. 'This is the country of my mother,' she told me.
Many same sex couples tell us their relationship is identical with marriage. We can ensure non-discrimination against same sex couples while at the same time maintaining a commitment to children's right to be born of and reared by a father and a mother.
Adoption is shown to be a tumultuous process, as joyful and painful in its own way as pregnancy and birth. Lucy is unable to conceive, but suspects that the motherly bond is about much more than biology. Her husband Joseph, by contrast, values biology greatly.
Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. My family seemed happy enough, but when my mother died my father rejected his children. As I contemplated a reunion I wondered if he would recognise me. It had been seven years and he had recently been diagnosed with dementia.
Max has an erratic imagination, and is prone to extremes of emotion. There are hints of mental illness, but, really, he is simply Every Child. Following a ferocious fight with his mother, he flees into fantasy and becomes king to a group of melancholic monsters.
49-60 out of 70 results.